Skunk Anansie on Grace Jones’ Meltdown: “She said ‘If you don’t do it, I’m going to break your neck!’”
nme.comSkunk Anansie frontwoman Skin has told NME about the “honour” of being asked to play the Grace Jones-curated Meltdown festival 2022, and revealed the memorable request letter that the icon sent her.Having been handpicked by Jones to perform at this June’s Meltdown festival in London alongside the likes of John Grant, Sky Ferreira, Peaches, Hot Chip and Greentea Peng, Skin described the invitation as “an honour”.“I was aghast because we were the first band she asked,” Skin told NME. “She wrote us a letter saying: ‘If you don’t do it, I’m going to break your neck!’ Something like that!
It was a typical Grace Jones letter and it cracked me up.”In the ‘90s, Skin resented constant comparisons to Jones, considering it reductive to equate the two trailblazers because they are both outspoken black female performers.
However, when they eventually met, they became firm friends. “I felt like I was compared to her because black women just get compared to other black women, even though we’re nothing like each other,” Skin explained.“It was annoying and I thought it was lazy journalism.
But then I saw her play in New York and realised: ‘OK, I get it now. There’s an attitude to Grace’s performance that I also have’.
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